Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Echoes
by RoaringTurtle
Summary: There is no way that Mila's Turnwheel was only used for battles. Follow the various members of Alm and Celica's army as they abuse the fabric of reality to get out of awkward situations.


"I can't believe I got to see Celica, after all these years, and the first thing we do is argue!" Alm groaned to his fellow villagers. After that disaster, he needed to talk to someone, to figure it out. And he was suddenly put in charge of an army that just seized a castle, so he felt like he earned the right to commandeer the war room for a bit.

"And I can't believe Celica left without saying anything to any of us!" Tobin complained, mostly hurt that she hadn't bothered to see anyone other than Alm, although he was probably trying to comfort Alm in some way, assuring him she cared. He wasn't very good at it. Tobin was mostly here since he had nothing better to do. He was still a good sounding board, Alm reasoned.

"It's okay, Alm! You still have me! We don't need Celica. She obviously doesn't understand you like I do," Faye crooned, completely ignoring Tobin. Faye was here because she was always at Alm's side, even if he didn't know it. Even when he reunited with Celica. She was hiding in a crate of oranges during their moment. Alm almost had a heart attack when she jumped out after that to comfort him. Alm worried about that girl sometimes.

Gray wasn't here because he was gossiping Clair about what happened. Clair was a sweet girl, she always looked out for Alm. She was a good friend. And Gray was always trying to impress Clair, for some reason. Maybe because she was a noble? Alm hoped they could be friends.

Kliff was there though, but Alm was pretty sure he only came to get Faye to leave him alone. Kliff was just staring at Alm blankly, so he probably wasn't listening though, but Alm appreciated the effort. Kliff acted prickly, but Alm knew he was having the time of his life. All these new lands and adventures had lit a spark in him. Kliff still needed to come out of his shell more, the best part of adventuring is going with you friends, Alm had told him more than once.

"And then the landslide happened! What if she's hurt!" Alm wondered aloud, with clear desperation in his voice. For all he knew, his childhood friend had left on sour terms and was possibly dead! "I just need to hear that she's okay,"

"Wow," Kliff sarcastically drawled, "It's not like you have some magic device that can allow you to go back in time and fix any mistakes..." Alm looked at him as the realization slowly dawned on him.

"You're right! I can't believe we forgot about Mila's Turnwheel!" Alm shouted, almost ecstatic. He had completely forgotten about it since he never used it. It's not like it was intentional, but it only had 3 uses, so he tried to save them. Unfortunately, he kept saving them and he never actually used it.

"You mean that thing Silque gave you that you never use?" Tobin asked, which was kind of useless since the Alm just remembered about how it was always forgotten. Alm still appreciated the effort.

"Kliff, you genius little bookworm!" Alm rubbed Kliff's head, which Kliff wasn't fond of, but he was getting it anyways, "You're getting oranges instead of flour next battle!" Alm then grabbed the device and went back to before the landfall.

* * *

"Okay, so I warned her about landfall, but she still insisted on going that way! And we still argued!" Alm complained after failing again, to the confusion of everyone present since they didn't know he used the Turnwheel. Except Faye, because she was in a crate of oranges when Alm explained time-travel to Celica. Apparently she could do it too, neat.

"Huh?" Gray asked, since he was here this time. Alm made sure to grab him since he had already left to find Clair last time. They could bond later, this was an emergency.

"Yeah, what are you talking about?" Tobin chimed in, but he really didn't need to, since Gray already asked. Alm filled the three of them in, since he realized the only one who knew what was going on was himself. And Faye, but she was being unhelpful.

"Well you tried, and nothing changed. I guess it's just the Universe's way of letting you know that you and Celica could never be together. Unlike me, I was always with you. I will always be with you." Faye told him. Her voice was gentle, but her eyes looked scary. Alm took a few steps back from her. War makes you learn scary things about your friends, like how ready Faye was ready to kill for him. Or how Kliff found the whole thing exciting. Alm would make sure he had a steady supply of books after this was settled, just to keep him from getting bored.

"It sounds like I already helped, so I can I leave?" Kliff asked, but Alm shook his head.

"No way! You were the most helpful last time. These guys can't help me!" Alm told him, much to the chagrin of the others.

"Hey!" Gray complained.

"That's fair," Tobin admitted.

"What were you guys even arguing about?" Gray asked, after he got over his bruised ego.

"I don't even know... we were talking about our adventures, and then she just got mad and left..." Alm reminisced, genuinely confused about what went wrong.

"So you said something that ticked her off?" Kliff asked. Gray nodded furiously behind him, no doubt thinking of all the times he enraged Clair.

"I didn't even do anything," Alm defended lamely, so the others decided to ask a third party since Alm was useless.

"Do you know what he did?" Tobin turned, asking Faye, who they all knew had witness the whole thing. Alm didn't even tell them that she was in the crates, they just assumed she was there.

"No way!" Faye interjected, "Alm is the most courteous gentleman I've ever met! It couldn't be his fault!"

"Asking Faye was a mistake," Kliff lamented. Out of the three of them, he had the least tolerance for her obsession. Which to be fair, creeped out more than half the army. Alm didn't really see it though. He actually didn't see her most of the time, even though she would be at his side if he ever called, like she was nearby. She was a good friend.

"Well, it was going fine until I mentioned that we were going to fight Rigel, and then she got worried. And then it was all downhill from there when I mentioned the last king." Alm pondered as she scratched his head.

"She got really heated when they got to the Royalty thing," Faye added, because she had been watching from inside a crate of oranges. She had problems.

"Wow, that weird," Gray thought aloud, "Almost as weird as Myson, your grandfather who is an important general, bringing her to Ram Village one day, and her leaving after those knights found us,"

"It's probably nothing," Tobin assuaged him to a chorus of agreements, so the five of them dropped the topic.

"You know what," Alm suddenly realized, standing in a Eureka pose for something that most decidedly doesn't deserve it, "It was probably because I mentioned she was swash-buckling! She tried to change the subject, but maybe it was just her anger at being called a pirate!"

"That might be it! One time, Clair got mad at me for telling her that she stole my heart, saying a true noble would never resort to petty thievery," Gray added. Kliff gave Gray a disbelieving look, but he always gave that look to everyone, so it was nothing new.

"I don't think-" Kliff started, but it was drowned out by the other excited teenagers who thought they just solved a mystery. Kliff pouted a little because of that.

"She must have bottled up her feelings like Kliff always does," Faye suggested, earning a scowl from Kliff.

"Alright, so you should use the turnwheel to go back, and just make sure you don't mention pirates and you'll be golden!" Tobin clapped his hands together as Alm eagerly started turning the gears that work the magic.

"Why don't you just refrain for speaking entirely" Kliff added bitterly, which sounded sarcastic for some reason. Alm wondered why, and stopped for a moment.

"That's a great idea!" Faye eyes shined with her own malicious interest in mind. "You don't know what made her angry, so if you say nothing, then nothing can go wrong!"

"That's why you're my go to idea man," Alm pointed at Kliff with conviction, as if Kliff should be proud of this, but he seemed panicked.

"No, this is-" Kliff protested, but was stopped when he felt Gray put his arm around Kliff's shoulder, which he definitely wasn't fond of.

"Don't be so modest," Gray told him, probably meaning well, but it just caused Kliff to bury his face in his hands.

* * *

"Dude, making us sit in crates so we can watch you ignore Celica is a bit much," Tobin told Alm as he climbed out of his crate. Alm had the bright idea to get his fellow villagers to hide nearby so he could get feedback. Celica had just stormed out for 3rd time, not that Tobin knew it.

"C'mon guys, I can only go back one more time, so I needed to make sure next time was perfect!" Alm told them, and this time they didn't need a refresher. They only had 3 gears for the turnwheel, but to be fair, Alm hadn't really used it before.

"Were you expecting to fail?" Kliff asked, extremely unamused. His sour face was more sour than usual, must be the citrus, Alm thought. He could've passed for one with his head popping out of a orange pile.

"Wouldn't you if your plan was just to stand there and ignore her?" Gray mocked, because as bad as his attempts to woo women were in the past, he at least tried. Alm felt a little satisfaction since Gray was being forced to hide in oranges though.

"A good strategist always has fail-safes," Alm ignored Gray, and to be fair, Alm did lead them into taking a castle, so good on him. But then he got to the important stuff, "I need you guys to help me figure out why Celica keeps getting mad at me!"

"Were we supposed to be watching? I thought we were hiding from Faye or something..." Gray, who was half buried in the largest crate of oranges, admitted, considering Alm just told them to hide in the crates and wait.

"I'm right here," Faye appeared from oranges next to him, causing the three boys to yelp in surprise. Even Kliff, and he always has a straight face. It made him an excellent straight man and Gray was sure to make use of that. But Alm wasn't surprised, because this was his third time. He wouldn't let them know his initial reaction though. He would take that to the grave. Faye looked cross, but she usually did when she wasn't talking to Alm.

"Did you really think that would work?" Tobin asked, By the Mother, he could be such a Gray rip-off. Then again, Gray was busy screeching that a ghost appeared.

"I thought he looked very dashing," Faye defended, but it wasn't that helpful. It also felt out of place since Gray was still screaming.

"Who came up with that stupid idea, anyways?" Tobin joked, which was strange since they all loved the idea in the last timeline. These guys would make past Kliff sad.

"It was probably you," Kliff told him, Alm was in disbelief that even new Kliff was trashing his past self's idea, so Alm felt like he should correct that misconception.

"Actually you suggested it," Alm informed him, completely serious, and Alm saw Kliff feel his world shake as he realized he might not be the smartest person in the room.

"Wha-. No." Kliff was left speechless and he processed how he could possibly think that was a good idea in any timeline. Alm figured he wasn't going to be that helpful this time around, whoops.

"You broke Kliff," Tobin informed Alm, as if he didn't just go over that in his head. Tobin waved his hand in front of Kliff's face, but got no responce. Taking this as a challenge, he decided to lift Kliff. Not that it was too hard, considering Kliff was like a twig compared too the other villagers, but Tobin wasn't much bigger. Seeing this once in a life time chance, Faye decided to join in by messing with his arms to make him pose, he probably wasn't fond of that.

"What should I do?" Alm asked Gray, who was the only one not distracted.

"I dunno man, Clair and I don't get along so I don't know what to tell you," Gray kept comparing Alm and Celica to him and Clair, which Alm never understood. "I guess the only thing you can do is try to talk it out, and hope it works out for the best," Alm thought that was actually pretty good advice, but it was what he did the first time. Also Kliff was making weird noises in the back, so Alm figured he should fix that in the next timeline.

"I already tried that though," Alm told him, clearly resigned at this point.

"Try harder then?" Gray suggested, "Talk it out like adults instead of storming out on each other?" It would have been meaningful if Tobin and Faye hadn't decided to make Kliff a marionette and moonwalk, which ruined all tension in that room. If only they could laugh a bit quieter.

"Thank, Gray. I think I will."

Alm used the turnwheel for the last time.

* * *

"So after I chased her, we talked it out. So apparently she is the lost Zofian Princess, and she was actually just worried about me the entire time. So now she'll go to some temple to find Mila, but we'll keep in touch with letters," Alm finished, having spent the last hour telling his friends the story of how he had finally found a use for the turnwheel.

"Good for you, man," Gray told him, clapping a hand on his shoulder. His infectious grin growing when he heard they made up. He had especially liked the part when he was the one who solved everything.

"Why'd you tell us that?" Kliff grumbled, since he didn't want to be there. He was especially grumpy after he heard the part where he danced, but Alm felt that was a necessary part of the story.

"I can't believe we didn't get to meet Celica in any timeline," Tobin grumbled, because this was his childhood friend who he hadn't seen in years, but it's fine, he insists.

"I knew you could do it, Alm" Faye told him, which was kind of nice until-, "But you don't need to do all that work next time. I'm sure there is someone who would appreciate you and won't need you to make 3 different timelines." It felt like she was trying to tell him something, but he just never figured out what it was.

"So you two made up and they avoided the landslide?" Tobin asked, just to make sure, since that was Alm's initial purpose, which had mostly fallen to the wayside, now that Alm thought about it.

"Oh shi-"


End file.
